Mimosis Inquieta

191 Aet. IV.?. :Author: Edwin Wooton. Tiie observations resulting in the following article were commenced in 1876. For many years previous to this, indeed from early boyhood, I had been struck with the great problem of mind and body. I had observed the influence of the former over the latter, but my inquiries as to causation, whether directed to persons or books, met with no satisfactory answer. The so-called psychologists I found to deal with mere abstract principles, and to afford no explanation whatever of physical phenomena. Persons whom I have interrogated appeared to imagine that I was seeking to tear open the most sacred, reserved chamber of the human temple. They regarded with shrinking terror any attempt to analyse the physical causes of human emotions; to fathom those laws which connect an idea with its physical expression. Such conduct might be pardoned, perhaps, in the scientific laity and even in metaphysicians, for the latter are so enthralled in their favourite dogma of mind, in the view of the mere abstract side of man’s mental phenomena, that it would outrage their most cherished convictions did they consent to investigate him as he actually is?a physical mechanism. I make no assertion against the existence of a soul in man; to do so would be to act contrary to my belief. Let it be enough that all the phenomena of life are manifested through the material form. It is difficult, however, t6 see what excuse can be made for members of the medical profession for their negligence in the investigation of a subject which must have been continually presented to them. There is probably no physical condition of the human being which has been relegated to the dominion of quackery to a greater extent than ‘ nervous debility. Partly from an utterly mistaken view of their duty to society and the profession of medicine, partly from a cowardly disinclination to acknowledge that for whose existence they could not account, medical men have wilfully blinded themselves to one of the most gigantic phenomena of everyday existence, and have, like the ostrich, sought safety in such blindness. If, however, one wished to select a subject which had been far from ignored by medical men, but had been “mixed up” by them to a greater extent than any other, he would find in ” hysteria” his desideratum. Under this title have they placed indiscriminately every abnormal nervous condition which they could not relegate to any other known disease. Such a course of procedure has resulted in the term ” hysteria,” conveying to the student and practitioner no definite meaning.

It has also been the fashion to taboo nervous debility, hysteria, and hypochondriasis as mere states of wilful imagination and simulation. Just the same moral cowardice which has been shown with regard to the investigation of clairvoyance, hypnotism, psychism, and other similar conditions, has played its part in connection with the states of the system previously named. The things were ” nonsense,” because they were out of the mental grasp of the men who observed the phenomena. They would doubtless gladly have classed all under “lunacy,” only it might have injured their practices bad they done so. Classified in this manner they might have got rid of the subjects for ever, for lunacy was a thing nothing human could explain. It was perfectly legitimate to study metaphysics, and to suppose that the reasoning powers had in the insane become perverted, and that was an all-sufficient explanation. To have asserted that hysteria, mimosis, hypochondriasis, or even lunacy owed their existence and phenomena to as definite physical changes as did a sprained ankle or a broken limb, would have been to have knocked on the head the cherished doctrine that mental phenomena were produced by an immaterial uncorporeal mind, and had no connection with the body. Religious bigotry and materialism have joined hands in refusing investigations into the nature of the ego. Religion has dreaded lest its occupation should be gone, and that be received as a mere fact of science which it has made a great deal of fuss about being taken as an article of faith. Materialism has shunned the question lest the investigation should “prove its teachings erroneous, and it has quieted its conscience by the statement that certain phenomena could not be true because they were not explicable by any mere material laws known to the materialists. Of course there have been exceptions to the rule of conduct of which I have spoken. Mental physiology has had its confessors amongst medical men, who have borne ridicule and loss of practice because they testified to the truth. They have not witnessed in vain. While metaphysicians and materialists stand helpless, unable to do aught but dogmatise, far beyond them have passed the pupils of the fallen witnesses, bearing the glorious banner of research, and their investigations have proved that the ego is a soul working through matter, a motive force governing a machine. That eminent physiologist, Dr Carpenter, was amongst the first, in his work on Mental Physiology, to boldly declare to the world the phenomena of ideo-motor action. The book was a daring defiance to the ignorant cavillers of the age. He, however, did not attempt to explain the physical causation of the phenomena. The ” complex mimosis ” of the following pages is ” ideo-motor action,” but inasmuch as ideo-motor action maybe normal, I have confined the term to the latter condition, and given that of ” complex mimosis ” to ideo-motor processes when abnormal.

Dr Beard, of New York, has given the term “neurasthenia ” to the condition of mimosis. But in his published work his classification is throughout open to objection. He has not generalised sufficiently, nor has he done aught to explain the physical causation of the condition and its phenomena, and I cannot but think his method of treatment is rather hocus pocus. As an observer, however, he has done much for mental science. By simple mimosis inquieta, or nervous exhaustion, is meant that condition of the nerve tissue which results from excessive demands on its energy, or from its being denied proper food. In either case, the chemical constitution of the brain is weak ; but the latter may have one of two chief characteristics : (1) if the functions of the brain have been heavily taxed, and good food has been taken, the tissue will be embryonic in character ; (2) if it has not been taxed, but nervous exhaustion has resulted from poor living, the tissue will be mature, but weak.

The vital processes of the human body are effected through the agency of the system we term nervous, and, as a consequence, are either indirectly or directly under the governance of the encephalon. In the former case the vital processes are due to the action of the non-encephalic reflex centres. Such centres are in connection with the brain, and are concerned with actions which naturally are either automatic or voluntary. The automatic actions are in the normal condition unconsciously performed ; of the voluntary we are always conscious. Again, the automatic cannot be inhibited or accelerated by the will, but the non-encephalic centres of voluntary movement are inactive until, by the obedience of the organs with which they are in connection to the mandates of the will, they are educated to the performance of duties vicarious to those of the brain, and capable of being set in action or inhibited by volition directed to their subject organs.

When the non-encephalic centres concerned in reflex move194 MIMOSIS INQUIETA. ments are stimulated by the presence in the organs governed of an impediment to the performance of their functions, such centres convey the stimulus to a more proximate centre, which, if unable to remove the cause of the stimulus, may itself transmit it to other ganglia, through which it may at length reach the brain, causing pain and an increased discharge of nerve force, which may or may not be adequate to the task of remedying the evil indicated.

The above is a very brief outline of the general laws which regulate the normal and abnormal action of the encephalic and an-encephalic centres respectively. Mimosis inquieta following the phenomena and causation divides itself into three natural classes?simple, complex, and abdo mino- central.

Abdomino-central mimosis inquieta includes the so-called hysteria and hypochondriasis.

Both these latter terms are most misleading, but all error will be avoided if, putting entirely on one side their etymology, the reader will clearly understand that nervous conditions resulting from abdominal affections are, in the female, termed hysteria, and in the male, hypochondriasis.

The phenomena of simple mimosis inquieta embrace, as might be predicated from the definition, functional disturbances of the whole bodily mechanism. Amongst the more common are:

1. Relaxation of the general muscular tone of the body and consequent phenomena, including 5, 7, 10, 11, and 12. 2. Cardiac stimulation, occurring after slight exertion or from emotional causes (not ideo-motor action). The action of the heart may be violently stimulated. The same effect may result in a modified manner from lying on the left side. 3. Cardiac palpitation. This condition is that which generally obtains in the mimotic state; it is an irregular action of the heart, the rhythm and intensity both coming under this description. Occasionally the rhythm runs : 1-2, 3-4-5 ; the 1-2 being distinctly separate, and having between them the usual pause. Then ensues a pause of about twice the duration of that between 1 and 2 ; then 3, 4, 5 are sounded distinctly, but following very quickly on each other. Occasionally there is no rhythm whatever worthy of the name, the heart beating somewhat in this fashion : 1?2; 3-4?5?G; 7, 8, 9 ;^0-ll-12-13, &c. &c. The intensity of the beat, like its frequency, is very variable. The solitary beats are, as a rule, louder than those following quickly on each other.

4. Hand trembling. This is not observed when the hand is not called into play; but if the individual affected attempt to write, or to hold a glass or aught else in the hand, acts which require obedience and steadiness of the organ, it will be seen that the latter is not under control, but that it undergoes a series of very rapid movements called, in popular parlance, ” trembling.”

5. Aphonia?or loss of voice?partial or complete. This generally occurs suddenly or with very short warning. As a rule, the aphonia is only partial; the voice is not falsetto, but a very weak chest note.

tj. Vocal tremor. 7. Shaking of the head in an ant.-post. direction. When walking, if a hat be worn, the brim acts as an index, and vibrates at each step. If no hat be worn the scalp will be seen to move (in well marked cases) at the back of the head in walking. 8. Trembling of the legs, especially about the knees. 9. Twitchings of the muscles, especially of the head. 10. Relaxation of the facial muscles, giving the face an enervated, spiritless appearance. 11. Relaxation of the ocular and orbital muscles, producing a spiritless appearance of the eye. 12. Involuntary defaecation and micturition. 13. Atony of the digestive, excretory, and other organs, inducing feeling of general malaise. 14. Idiopathic fits of perspiration and rigors. 15. Irritability of the cerebral cognisant centres, as shown by fright at slight causes. Some of these phenomena must be more specially considered. Cardiac functional disturbance (2). This, together with the phenomena 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, is due to inhibition of muscular polarity. The vagus slows the action of the heart, and while it is possible that, in mimosis, its inhibition may take part in quickening the cardiac beat, the hypothesis has not yet been proved. It is certain, however, that this result may be brought about by stimulating the cardiac ganglia, and that increased force, as well as quickness of beat, is a result. In the former action, at any rate, the vagus can take no part, for its action only quickens, and does not increase the power of the heart. (7) This phenomenon is perhaps more common than any other resulting from simple mimosis inquieta. It is due mainly to the relaxed tone of the trapezes and occipito-frontalis muscles, notably the latter. It is not a twitching or positive movement, but a mere relaxation of the muscles supporting the head on the trunk, and connecting the dermis and subcutaneous tissue to the skull.

196 MIMOSIS INQUIETA.

(12) These phenomena may occur in healthy persons on the receipt of a sudden shock, by which the nervous system is prostrated ; but, as a rule, they take place only in individuals whose systems are already enervated (mimotic), and then they are caused by anything producing great mental disturbance. The subjective basis common to all the phenomena of complex mimosis inquieta is the occurrence of an idea concerned with a certain bodily act or mental condition of the individual, which act is carried out by the latter, and into which mental condition he passes.

These ideas may be classified as? (a) Fear of inability to perform. (b) Fear of involuntary performance. (c) Mere present cognition that such acts are performed. All these ideas have reference (1) to muscular actions, (2) to cerebral acts, (3) to glandular functions. The muscular actions are never performed by purely involuntary and automatic muscles. The three classes of actions (1), (2), (3), may be each and all performed in obedience to any one of the ideas (a), (b), (c). Enumeration of the chief phenomena: 1. Muscular actions.?Fear of inability to speak loudly (aphonia) ; perform deglutition; perform any customary manual or similar bodily action, as walking straight; articulate clearly; micturate; emit semen ; keep the head or hand steady ; perform many complex actions, as to look a certain individual in the face, to pass a certain spot, &c.; keep the eye and facial muscles tense and firm. Fear of involuntarily shaking the head or the limbs; breathing heavily ; blushing, paling or blanching; stammering and stuttering; speaking in falsetto voice. Mere cognition of a former fear, or of the act, or any of the above phenomena.

2. Cerebral actions.?Fear of inability to give utterance to eloquent or graceful language, maintain one’s vivacity of manner and r&partee, recollect any fact; fear of involuntarily calling up certain mental pictures, &c.; mere cognition of any of the above.

3. Glandular functions.?Fear of inability to secrete saliva ; fear of involuntary salivary secretion ; mere cognition of either of the above. These acts are all controllable by strong efforts of volition; as they occur, however, in exhausted nervous systems, the efforts of volition, except under great stimulation, are very seldom sufficiently strong to control any one such act. Pain, definitely localised, is rare in patients not suffering from abdominal disorders ; that is, the mind does not readily give rise ideas of pain, but a modified form of hyperasthesia may be produced by persistent direction of the attention to a part. The eye is the most easily influenced organ of the body in this respect. The sense of pressure may be increased ; some persons are conscious, whilst sitting, of the pressure of the seat, etc., and are uncomfortable. There is in well marked casas of complex mimosis inquieta a general hyperesthesia akin to that which accompanies a chill; in the latter condition, as is well known, the whole body is extremely sensitive.

Thus far I have discussed the two divisions of simple mimosis separately, but I have now to deal with a third state, viz., that which occurs when congenital mimosis simplex is subjected to those circumstances which of themselves produce the acquired variety. The result of such action is in every case a state of mental and physical atony far exceding in degree that of the two divisions I have considered. But remember it may be only in degree. We may have the muscular twitchiugs, the hasty, imperfect utterance, the quick, agitated manner exaggerated tenfold?we may have the exhaustion of nervous energy threatening insanity, or even death from asthenia. We may have all this, but the phenomena observed may, as I have said, differ from those of simple mimosis inquieta, congenital and acquired, only in degree.

The chief phenomena of abdomino-central mimosis inquieta are:

1. Local pain, due to visceral diseases.

2. Pains referred to parts not diseased, due to transference of the nerve force or vascular disturbance of nerve centres. 3. Diffused hyperesthesia, due to the latter cause. 4. Defective functional action of viscera, due to reflex action. 5. Disordered muscular movements, due proximately to reflex action or vascular disturbance of nerve centres. 6. As a sequence, nervous exhaustion produced by any of the above causes.

The brain, and the brain alone, is the physical seat of all consciousness. Whatever influences may be brought to bear on the body, they can be subjectively experienced” only by the organ which has this for one of its functions, i.e., the brain. If a red-hot iron be applied to the skin, the conscious pain resulting has its seat in the cerebral mass and in those regions in which the nerves running from the injured part terminate. Morbid growths in sensory centres at first increase and then abolish sensation; the character ot the latter, of course, depending on that of the region implicated. Irritating the central termination of nerves of common sensation causes all the indications of the most exquisite agony. (See Ferrier’s ” Functions of the Brain” for instances.) Hence it follows that a centripetal stimulus is not necessary for the causation of sensation, and the only remaining question is whether sensory centres can he set in action by intracerebral causation.

To determine this we are compelled to rely on analogy alone. Pathology and physiological vivisection are, of course, useless in the matter, and as I have indicated, the patient’s assertions are on trial?the evidence in his case is purely subjective, and he cannot therefore be admitted as a witness. The faculty of comparison is lacking in hysteria and hypochondriasis. In ordinary dreaming and in the above-named states alike, certain cerebral regions are active, and independent of control, hence they are not corrected by comparison, and the result is delusion. The cause of dreaming is the insufficiently lowered activity of certain parts to the level of the whole. The cause of hysterical and hypochondriacal phenomena is the hyper-excitability of certain parts over the general level, forming a localised dream with real subjective sensations.

” Pain occurs …. wherever the intensity of the centripetal excitation oversteps a certain limit. This may be attained in two ways : on the one hand, by the increase in the intensity of the stimulus, and to this belong the simplest cases of the production of pain by wounds, caustics, extremes of temperature, and the like; and secondly, by the increase in the excitability of the sensory apparatus (hyperesthesia), so that weak stimuli produce pain.”?Ziemmsserc’s Cyclopaedia. Putting all nervous affections on one side, there is only one state of being in which a consciousness of the existence of pain occurs, a real objective cause being absent, and that state is dreaming. In sleep the compression of the throttler’s fingers and the sharp stab of the assassin’s knife are distinctly experienced, the whole being subjective. In dreaming the idea begets the sensation.

The facts above demonstrated show incontestably that under a fixed idea pain may be experienced without any peripheral stimulation, degeneration of, or pathological growth in, the nervous apparatus. The sensation of pain can therefore occur, i.e., consciousness of pain can exist, without an objective cause. Such occurrence of pain is as possible under the conditions we term hysteria and hypochondriasis as in sleep. In the one case ?sleep?the cerebrum is in relation to the pain auto-genetic and the delusion general. In abdomino-central affections the delusion is partial. To say that in one case the man is asleep, and in the other awake, is to play merely on words. The dreamer is asleep only in regard to the portions of his brnin not engaged in dreaming; probably one hemisphere only is concerned. The faculty of comparison is impaired, often lacking.

Having regard to these facts, and to the circumstance that the cases of abdomino-central disease are not isolated, but numerous, presenting often the same phenomena, and occurring amongst persons of whom gross deception would be unimaginable, we are logically impelled to the conclusion that the subjective phenomenon of so-called hysterical and hypochondriacal pain is real, as much so as if the sensation were derived from peripheral irritation of the nerves proceeding from the part in which the pain is felt.

Examples of cases of complex mimosis inquieta might be given by the score. I will content myself here with relating the life history of a mimotic gentleman filling a good position in the intellectual world. The case is quite typical, all the circumstances according with my own observations. I am requested to keep the name of the sufferer secret. For other examples of phenomena consult Beard’s work on ” Neurasthenia” and Carpenter’s ” Mental Physiology.” The patient was, in his early boyhood, exceedingly strong ?stronger, indeed, than any boys of his own age with whom he ever came in contact. He was, it would appear from the evidence brought forward, an exceedingly winning child, polite and grave beyond his years. When three years old he sustained a severe fall, from the effects of which, however, he was considered wholly to have recovered. On one or two occasions he was in danger of drowning from falling into a fish-pond, but he does not seem to have received any great shock on these occasions. He was once severely frightened by the appearance of a dancing ” Jack in the Green ” before his father’s house. During his childhood he was very retiring and studious in disposition ; he was annoyed, like some of his young neighbours, by peasant boys of the district who would try to intercept and bully him in his walks. On these and other such occasions he would strive to avoid them, but if they came into collision, he immediately showed fight, and nearly always conquered. At the age of about eleven years, from some slight occasion, he did not see his playfellows for a day or two, and then, not liking to meet them and say why he had been absent, he allowed another day to elapse, and so day after day, and week after week passed by, he all the time carefully avoiding his playmates. At the termination of about six weeks they met again, when all his diffidence immediately vanished. At the age of thirteen he was afflicted with severe fits of blushing. He blushed at first only in school whenever spoken to, whenever he had to speak, and whenever anyone looked at him. This went on to the age of puberty, which took place at 13^, when the blushing occurred at the table, and elsewhere, in his daily life. At the same time a particular direction of the phenomenon of blushing occurred. This was in church during the chanting of the verse in the ” Te Deum,” ” When Thou tookest,” &c.

At the age of fourteen another phenomenon appeared?salivation. This only occurred in church, and more especially during those parts of the service which were conducted with least noise. Under cover of the music, he could swallow the saliva without “being detected, but in quieter parts of the service he could not do this, and the phenomenon made its appearance most markedly at this time. Two or three months later, another phenomenon appeared?twitching of the head?this only occurred in church, but during all parts of the service.

These three phenomena mentioned as occurring during public worship only took place one at a time.

At the age of sixteen there appeared another phenomenon? an inability to keep the head steady when walking. This first came on in the street, accompanied by a slight feeling of faintness, and the head shook as the person walked. The phenomenon passed away, but came back in twelve months in a modified manner. The head trembled in an ant.-post. direction only. The phenomenon only appeared when walking in the street; it ceased on entering the house. This attack lasted twelve months, and then disappeared. He was free from this phenomenon for three years, when it again made its appearance in a most marked manner, and occurred within as well as without doors. After the lapse of about fifteen months, it began to decline, and continued doing so for four years, when it became scarcely noticeable. From its first commencement to the present date it has appeared violently whenever the individual has been under excitement, and has passed away as the excitement subsided. The phenomenon of blushing passed away almost entirely at the age of fifteen, but it has continued up to the present day in connection with the passage of public worship mentioned. The phenomenon of twitching of the head has continued with scarcely any intermission to the present day. It is more marked after great bodily or mental exertion or dissipation, and when the system has been kept very quiet it is scarcely noticeable. The phenomenon of salivation has not once disappeared for any length of time since it was first observed. Sometimes it is very marked, at others very slight; occasionally it is absent for a week or two.

At the age of twenty”0ne the patient was afflicted with stammering urethra. He had suffered from no venereal disease, nor had he organic stricture of any kind, but he was unable to pass his water before people, as in a public urinal. This phenomenon lasted four years, and then disappeared. At the age of twenty-one and a half falsetto occurred. The patient could and did speak in his daily avocations in his natural voice, a musical tenor, but the phenomenon manifested itself one day when he was transacting business with a certain person, and thereafter he could not command his voice when speaking to that person. Later on the falsetto appeared in his conversation with other people whenever he was weak and the idea occurred to him. At the present time the falsetto appears only when his voice has been strained with reading, or talking, or singing, and even then he has some control over it. At the age of twenty-two a most distressing phenomenon appeared. The patient dreaded lest he should not be able to swallow his food and should be choked. At this time he was in a very low state of health. At times he was utterly unable to swallow solids, however well they were masticated; drinks were taken freely and without anxiety. This phenomenon passed away in a couple of months under the influence of change of scene and occupation, and plenty of exercise and fresh air. During his life, until very lately, he has taken no medicines for his condition.

The life and habits of the patient have been, on the whole, simple. He has been fond of reading and study; is a good swimmer, and has always taken plenty of walking exercise. His appetite has been good, and his motions pretty regular. He has suffered from no diseases in particular except those common to childhood. He has been a great water drinker, and has never been intoxicated, although he is not a teetotaler. He has been a smoker from early youth, and has been rather fond of sexual indulgence. Prior to puberty he smoked very little,,and was absolutely chaste in his manner of life. At the age of puberty he was placed under circumstances which gave him the opportunity of indulging his amorous propensities, and he did not hesitate to avail himself of the opportunity. Following on this he became very weak, the Samsonlike characteristics of his frame disappeared, and he became more puny than his fellows.

At the present time, as during all his life, his mental powers are very strong, his faculty of imagination great, and that of reasoning clear and vigorous.

The condition of simple mimosis may be produced by any cause capable of exhausting the nervous mechanism, either directly, or indirectly?through the blood or other fluids. Such exhaustion may, in the latter case, be either active or passive. In the active sense, there is loss of blood or other fluid ; in the passive there is deprivation of food.

Excessive seminal expenditure, loss of blood, excessive mental and muscular exertion, all diseases which are physically painful, which make demands on the blood or nerve centres, simple loss of blood, and the too abundant use of certain drugs, are the chief operating causes concerned in the production of simple mimosis inquieta. The active principles of tea and coffee, while offering very scant nourishment to the tissues, stimulate the nerve centres strongly. This stimulation results in the discharge of nervous force and destruction of tissue ; all this being at the expense of the centres themselves. In time, this course being pursued, the exhaustion of the nerve centres is brought about.

Taken in moderate amount, and with other foods, tea and coffee prove useful stimulants. Tobacco is a great nerve sedative. In cases of nervous irritability it is, in moderation, beneficial. The action of the nicotine on the nerve centres is the hindrance of nervous waste and repair; hence in excessive amount it may prove as injurious to their tissue and functions as an abnormal demand on their energy.

Inasmuch as the conditions of bodily vigour and weakness are physically expressed by the tone of the tissues; in other words that function is directly influenced by cellular modifications ; that degeneration of brain substance is accompanied by impairment of cerebral functions, the particular phenomena depending on the situation and extent of the lesion, and that cellular motion, so far as the most careful observations have extended, is the inseparable accompaniment of nervous action? all analogy would lead us to the conclusion that every thought, i.e., manifested function, has its correlative expression in the condition of the brain cells.

Knowing this fact, we see that the fear of the act is the condition of fear of the cells. To put the matter diagrammatically : if, when a man fears an action, his brain cells are in a certain position, which we may term a figure of 8, that figure of 8 is the constant correlative physical expression of the fear experienced by the ego.

This condition, then, is atonic and definite in direction ; the cells influenced are in connection with the part subject of the thought. Along these lines of fibres and cells the atonic condition spreads with reference to a certain function, and haviDg reached the centre of that function, the latter is restrained or increased, as the case may be.

The brain exercises a direct and an indirect influence over the body; direct through tlie nerves of voluntary motion and the V.M. centres, and an indirect through the sympathetic system.

A physical act cannot take place in any part of the body save in obedience to a nervous direction of such action. Such nervous direction, when it originates in a nerve centre, is constant for the same physical act: that is, a given central molecular process produces a constant peripheral physical result. Examples of this law might be given by the score. As instances, I may mention the nervous supply of muscles and the constant results following nerve section, together with the never-varying effects resulting from stimulation or destruction of the encephalic nerve centres.

Following out the same general law, we are impelled to the conclusion that in the cerebrum the subjective or ideational process is the correlated constant expression of an objective constant molecular condition ; and, conversely, the correlated expression of an idea of physical action, if confined to the ideational centres, i.e., restricted from proceeding along the nervous paths to the nerve cords directly governing the physical action mentally concerned, produces no peripheral consequence. This is what actually occurs in the normal state, when a bodily action is mentally concerned, but not physically attempted to be carried out; and the accepted physiological solution of the problem is?that the motor centres are inhibited. But should the idea be carried out, then between the ideational centre and the working physical mechanism we have in action a motorial centre and a conducting tract; but how engaged ? ‘ Ideationally ??impossible, they are not ideational apparatus. Yet a communication has been effected. The conclusion is, that the motorial and conducting mechanism has been concerned in directing and conducting that physical cellular modification which originated in the ideational centres, and was there correlated as idea, and which purely cellular modification has by its transmission produced those further bodily actions, in themselves altogether mechanical, but which were first ideas, subjective truths, and which in their fulfilment became objective realities. So that the motor centres , and connective tracts have a physical condition corresponding to the conception and constant to such, even as the ideational centres have, and communicated from the latter.

Perhaps of all the phenomena of ideo-motor action, none is more frequent than that of blushing. Some persons, especially those who are young, on finding themselves exposed to the gaze of others, as at a table, blush furiously from the mere apprehension of doing so.

The idea of blusliing may have arisen from observation of the act in others, or from remembrance of some previous normal flushing of the face. In any case the excitable mental apparatus in which the ideational is to a greater or less extent independent of the volitional, perpetuates the thought, and the result is?blushing, whenever the idea recurs. Now, flushing of the face is due to relaxation of the capillaries. This latter may arise from the direct influence of external warmth, allowing their dilatation, but in all cases where the body is not acted on externally, it is due to inhibition of the V.M. centre, the functions of which are certainly not ideational or volitional. Here must arise, then, a special physical modification in this V.M. centre, inhibiting its action. Since such a condition can undoubtedly be produced by purely mechanical means, without any ideational influence, the physical character of the change in the centre is apparent. Since, again, the idea when it occurs is situate in a certain portion of the brain, of which a certain structure is necessary for the due performance of its functions, the inevitable conclusion is, that the special physical changes in the V.M. centre are derived through the conducting tracts from physical changes of the same character occurring in the ideational centres. Expression of the Eye.?The permanent character of the eye depends chiefly on its size, the pigmentation of the iris, and the lashes and brows in connection with the organ. The variable expression of the eye is due wholly and solely to contraction and relaxation partly of the muscles of the organ itself, partly of those in connection with its external appendages. We associate certain facial modifications with certain emotions. They are the objective expressions of the subjective sense. At the same time the expressions may be assumed in obedience to the will without any emotional causation. The expression of fierceness is caused by the equal tonic contraction of the four recti and the oblique muscles, fixing the sclerotic and cornea in a tense condition, and hence giving the surface of the eye a harder appearance, from which the light is refracted. Under these circumstances the eyes are often said to ” blaze “; at the same time the expression is assisted by the contraction of the orbicularis palpebrarum and the corrugator supercilii, and it may be modified by the raising or depression of the eyeball, in which case, of course, the special muscles concerned in the action are contracted, and their opponents relaxed. Ordinarily the cornea is maintained in a tone of contraction, but in persons suffering from the various forms of nervous exhaustion the muscles are relaxed, including the orbicularis, and the eye appears in an expressionless and flabby condition. The emotion of fear produces the same result, but in this case it may be modified by the alternate quick action of the recti and oblique muscles, as when a person in a fright gazes round hastily to find some means of escape. In this case the muscular contraction renders the cornea somewhat tense, and hence its expression is more full of life than when the coat is relaxed; in the former case the light is refracted from the corneal surface, in the latter case the organ is dull.

Briefly, therefore, it may be said that a relaxed condition of the cornea and of the orbicularis are indicative of exhaustion. The eyes have been spoken of as ” the windows of the soul,” but in truth, so far as expression is concerned, they are merely very sensitive mechanical organs governed by levers, whose actions give the former their expression. There is nothing mental in the eye itself, nor of necessity in the expression observed in it. I give utterance to what some may consider truisms, because there is a strong current opinion that in the eye dwells a strange something indicative of the mental condition, and, apart from mere poetical metaphor, it has even been asserted that the soul itself communicates with other sentients directly through it, even as light passes through a transparent or translucent medium. The expression in the eye of utter ” goneness,” of absolute lack of spirit, is a very common phenomenon in nervous exhaustion. As such it is seen in simple mimosis inquieta ; but, like blushing or pallor, it follows the idea, and is often met with in the complex form of the complaint. This expression, as will doubtless have been gathered from my preceding observations, is due to relaxation of the ocular and orbital muscles, following a suggested idea, the functions of the motor points lying between the ideational centres, and the muscular levers of course being inhibited.

Complex mimosis inquieta may commence by nervous exhaustion, produced by dissipation, &c., or may result from nervous exhaustion produced, wholly or in part, by abdominal affections. In the latter case it receives one of two designations : in the female, hysteria; in the male, hypochondriasis. In other words, hysteria and hypochondriasis are phases of mimosis inquieta complex, resulting from abdominal affections. There are no bodily functions, other than the purely cerebral, which for their performance do not require a certain amount of automatic action on the part of the nerve centres. We speak of voluntary acts; but our volition is merely a stimulating force, directed to a definite end, and depending for its fulfilment on the action of the co-ordinating and motor centres. I therefore divide bodily actions into three classes : 1. The purely reflex. 2. The reflex which can be influenced by the will. 3. The voluntary, requiring the automatic action of coordination. As examples of the first class may be mentioned cardiac and gastric functions. The second class may be divided into acquired and natural. As an example of the former division, I may cite walking; as one of the latter, respiration. To the third class belong those actions, such a^ striking and articulation, which can always be executed in obedience to the mandates of the will. In complex mimosis inquieta, purely reflex actions are not influenced by the ascendant faculties of which I have spoken. The centres of the former with their nerves may of course be thrown into the atonic condition resulting in imperfect performance of their functions. Of the acquired reflex actions I will speak presently.

Those actions which, generally reflex, may yet be influenced by the will, may be classified under two heads: 1. When the only office of volition is their production, sometimes by mechanical means, in which case of course the action continues to be reflex ; under this heading I place salivation. 2. When they may be produced and inhibited by the will.

The reflex action of the first division is natural; that of the second division may be natural or acquired?e.g., respiration and walking.

The automatic reflex centres of the medulla may, in their relationship to complex mimosis inquieta, be divided into two classes: the one in which they can, and the other in which they cannot, be influenced by this state. To the former class belong deglutition, salivation, respiration, and vascular tension ; to the latter, the remaining centres, at the head of which is that of the vagus regulating the heart.

Muscular contraction?spasmodic, is not a sign of muscular exhaustion, and it is due solely to central influence. Muscular exhaustion may be produced by prolonged or violent physical exertion : the result is muscular relaxation. At the same time the motor centres may be temporarily weakened by the demand on their energy, so that the voluntary movements of the body are performed in an unsteady, fitful manner, accompanied by involuntary muscular contractions. Muscular exertion is most exhausting; and putting on one side all mental phenomena, it is more productive of nervous disorders than is mental labour. Athletes are not, as a body, steady-nerved men. It may be that as the mnscles develop by exercise, the stimulated motor centres correlatively increase in power ; but it is more than evident to any careful observer that this increase has a definite rate of progress, and that either prolonged exertion, or exertion very frequently repeated, may demand ou the part of the nervous motor centres more energy than they are qualified to afford without weakening their tone. Hence involuntary muscular contractions are very frequent amongst athletes; the muscles in connection with the head are generally affected, as the trapezius, sterno-mastoid, &c. Any sudden and great physical exertion in persons unused to such will throw the whole body into a state of tremor. And this is made especially manifest if the person attempt to walk. Mere muscular exhaustion would prostrate the body, but partial exhaustion of the motor centres results in their spasmodic action when called on to execute their office. While muscular exertion may make such demands on the motor centres as they cannot satisfy by their rate of development, the muscles themselves, nevertheless, increase in bulk and tone, although they are liable to spasmodic inhibition of their polarity and their consequent contraction ; and there is in this case conservation of the bodily energy. But when demands are made on the supply of certain materials in the blood, not for elaboration into a structure, whose conservative energy will keep pace with the demand? on its functions, but for withdrawal from the system entirely, as in the case of the seminal fluid, the result is enervating in the extreme to the system. Analytical chemists have not yet succeeded in demonstrating clearly the exact constituents of nervous matter and semen, and the exact proportions in which they exist. But it has at any rate been shown that both alike contain cerebrin, lecithin, and phosphates. Moreover, there is no doubt that the secreting portion of the testicle closely resembles in its physical characters cerebral grey matter. Further, all logic would impel us to the conclusion that since the power of perpetuating the species, and of conferring physical and mental characteristics, is locked up in the spermatozoon, it must possess the very essentials of vitality, and contain all the life forces of the parent body.

The discharge of semen in an adult is as normal a matter as any other bodily function, and, within certain limits, it is as beneficial to the system as muscular exercise or mental occupation. One cannot lay down definite rules as to the fixed amount of food and drink each particular individual should take, nor the exact amount of mental and muscular exertion be should or may undergo. Averages may be struck, it is true, but individuals differ in their constitutions, and that which would be a minimum for one man would be a maximum for another. In the same manner it is difficult to say with reference to all men how often the act of copulation may be performed without injuring the system. A strong healthy man would receive no injury whatever from three coitions in six days. Striking an average, perhaps two coitions in the seven days is the limit of healthy sexual intercourse. Then, again, much will depend on the other habits of the man. If he be a brain worker he cannot certainly afford such a demand on those materials requisite for his nervous structure as can the mere physical labourer. In reality, nature has made each man a law to himself in these matters. His own physical sensations indicate clearly enough whether he eats, drinks, sleeps, works, physically or mentally, or copulates to too limited or too great an extent. Coition does not exhaust the female nervous system in the same manner as the male. The vaginal and labial secretions are mucous merely in character, and there is no expenditure of the vital fluid as in the case of men ; notwithstanding which the act necessitates an expenditure of nervous energy. Whether or not an interchange of physical force operates during the act of coition is a most interesting question. The sexual passion is not merely physical, but mental also. In its lowest aspect it is true that the mere physical irritability of certain structures requires to be satisfied, and provided this be done the passion subsides; but, in its higher and truer sense, it is the desire of the man as such for the woman as such ; and the oft coincidence of the sesthesise in these cases leaves but little doubt that there is an interchange of nervous force. Our knowledge on this subject, and of the after effects such an interchange might have on the system, does not allow us to take it into consideration in connection with the physical results of which copulation is productive in the human economy.

To sum up what I have already said ; both simple and complex mimosis are due to an atonic condition of the nervous centres. Complex mimosis is produced when the nervous condition occurs in persons possessing the faculties of apprehension and imagination beyond the normal. Its phenomena are due?

1. To the inhibition of co-ordinating centres.

2. To the stimulation of ‘reflex centres, partly under the influence of the will. 3. To the inhibition of muscular polarity. 4. To the inhibition of motor centres. Such inhibition and stimulation are caused by the mental impression having its correlative physical expression in the condition of the brain substance, and by the communication of such condition to successive cells and fibres, through definite tracts, until the arrival of such condition at the centre or locus of the function concerned in the thought.

The organs governed by the non-cephalic sympathetic ganglia, as the abdominal viscera, are the very last to perform ideo-motorial actions. These organs are governed chiefly by local ganglia; strong local irritation may cause pain, and increased or restrained action, according to the intensity of the stimulus, but the result is in no case continued or reproduced by mere ideation. If the great nervous centres be in a condition of atony, the functional power of the viscera is undoubtedly weakened; but it is only when mimosis has passed its utmost limit, and has merged into insanity, that we find the viscera injured by the continued direction to one ” locus ” of the patient’s apprehension. Such phenomena, although happily rare, are yet actual facts; their consideration here, however, would be out of place. That the heart can be brought under the influence of the will, to a greater or less extent, is a proved fact : the case of Colonel Townsend is too well authenticated to admit of rational doubt, and too well known to need more than this allusion. But these cases of voluntary cardiac government, although possible, are very rare.

It would be an interesting point to note whether those persons possessing ability to control the heart’s functions ever influenced the latter through ideo-motor action. Certainly in the normal condition, that is, when the heart is not under volitional control, although its action may be quickened by emotional excitement, there is no true ideo-motor action present. The idea of palpitation, quickened or slowed action, does not produce these results.

Nervous irritation of any kind, be it peripheral or central, may result in such an expenditure of force as to exhaust the mechanism. The various nerve centres are interdependent, and not only so, but the parts of each nerve centre are so bound together by the decussation of fibres as to render it an indivisible unity. The body of man is in reality a nervous system clothed with other tissues.

Every minute muscular fibril has its nerve fibril, the latter being really the conductor of vital force clothed in the former? a contracting investment. Fat, which has been declared not to be supplied with nerves, is supported by interstitial tissue and blood vessels, both of which are supplied with nerves. The mucous membranes, again, are collections of individual cells, eacli of which is a terminal nerve fibril in a differentiated investment. Bone is of the same general character ; and cartilage is a protoplasmic tissue, combining nerve properties with those of mechanical strength.

By the union of fibrils, fibres are formed, and by the union of these nerve cords, and the last, running backward, enter into formation of nerve centres. The disorganisation of such a centre produces functional disturbance of all parts supplied by it.

It is probable that the abnormal growth or atrophy of special tissues situated in the substance of others is due to special affections of the nerve fibrils supplying such tissues ; and it is also probable, although not yet clearly demonstrated, that the nerve fibrils passing from any such tissue, as the interstitial in muscle, gradually converge as they proceed centripetally, until they form definite localised bundles, an affection of which affects the tissue they supply, and such only. As, however, I have hitherto had no opportunity of definitely proving the truth of these hypotheses I do not advance them as arguments. They are recorded here in order that other investigators may have an opportunity of testing their accuracy. Should they prove correct pathology and practical medicine would receive an immense advance.

Considering the brief facts only which I have given, it is easy to understand why mimosis inquieta should result in general ill health. By exhaustion of the nervous centres the nerves cease to convey (1) the general trophic influence to the tissues necessary to their nutrition ; and (2) the influence which is necessary to the performance of their functions when such tissues enter into the composition of special organs. The result of this is an intensified weakness of the various viscera, &c.; and by their inaction the blood being rendered poor by non-assimilation, and impure by non-excretion of used-up material, an improper food is offered to the nerve centres, rendering them weaker, and so in a circle the mischief is increased and increased until, the whole system being exhausted, death results.

Infantile eclampsia, due to peripheral irritation, by its persistence may produce the epileptic condition. Although the pathology of epilepsy is in some points obscure, there can be no doubt that the chief seat of the nervous processes is in the pons and medulla. Hypersemia of the motor and V.M. tracts is the cause of the phenomena. This hyperemia may be congenital, but it may be produced by irritation of sensory or cerebral fibres, and when the irritant cause has been removed may render the disease continuous. It is probable that the liyper:Bmia, and therefore persistent epilepsy, is only produced in individuals possessing- an hereditary or acquired irritability of the cerebral or sensory fibres leading to the pons and medulla. Production of Epilepsy.

(1) Stimulation of V.M. centre. Anaemia of brain?insensibility. Stimulation of motor centres?convulsions. (2) Exhaustion of V.M. centre?general hyperemia constant. Exhaustion of motor centres?muscular atony. General nervous exhaustion. Dilatation of vessels in V.M. centre. ? ,, motor centre. ? generally?warmth. (3) Stimulation, producing insensibility. ? ? convulsions. ? general coldness.

In cases of general nervous exhaustion the V.M. centre is implicated concurrently with other centres. All parts of the brain being interdependent, the relaxation of the capillaries prevents the encephalon from becoming so exhausted as it otherwise would. Its tone, however, is not restored, for were it, then in the absence of a special exhausting irritation applied to the V.M. centre, the latter would regain its energy, which would enable it to remove the vasa motor phenomena observed. The general hyperemia assists in producing hyperesthesia general and special, and excited motor action, which, however, is spasmodic, owing to the non-maturation of the nervous tissue.

The symptoms of epilepsy vary according to the primary encephalic loci affected; thus the motor or V.M. phenomena may be absent, and they may vary almost to an infinite extent, in accordance with any especial nervous region possessing an abnormal irritability. I have given above merely the general law regulating the progress of the condition when an irritability of the motor and V.M. centres causes them to be affected. It is a well-known law of the nervous system that when irritation is applied to a sensory nerve of sufficient intensity to cause pain, the latter is referred at first only to the part actually irritated, and as the intensi ty of the stimulus increases, the sensory centres in the immediate neighbourhood of the one primarily active are thrown into a state of excitation, the condition of activity spreading correlatively with the intensity of the stimulus far and wide, even to the involvement of the general sensory and motor areas of the encephalon.

It is an application of this law which operates in producing true hysteria. Peripheral pressure on, or irritation of, abdominal nerves, and pressure on them in their course produces transference of the nerve force. As the irritation is seldom of the same intensity for a long time together, we find such pains wandering and diffused.

Constipation, by causing the distended bowel to press on the sympathetic plexuses, gives rise to general aching, pins and needles, cramp, &c. The pressure of the gravid uterus produces the same result. Grastric irritability, by transference of the nerve force, causes a general feeling of tenderness and malaise. Malposition of the womb throws the whole of the sensory system out of order, hyperesthesia being produced. The condition itself, by transference of the nerve force, having produced partial excitation of the general sensorium, it is easy to understand how acutely the ordinary stimuli applied to the general sensory system may be interpreted.

This continued expenditure of nervous energy results in exhaustion of the encephalic nervous apparatus, producing simple mimosis inquieta, and consequent on this all the phenomena become intensified, and there may ensue diffused reflex action, i.e., convulsions, involuntary micturition, defaecation, &c. By excessive stimulation the nerves supplying a part may become exhausted, and the part be rendered ana3stlietic; the same result may ensue from such pressure in the course of a sensory nerve as will inhibit its functions. Moreover, such pressure may, while preventing conduction of force through the nervous trunk from the peripheral termination of the nerve, and so rendering the part anesthetic, produce a constant pain referred to the anaesthetic region. This result ensues from the law that, stimuli in the course of a sensory nerve are referred to the peripheral termination of such nerve. When the brain is subjected, as it is in hysteria, to the exhausting demand on its energy I have described, then in persons of naturally weak volition, in whom that perfect balancing of the functions of the separate cerebral loci, which we term common sense, does not exist, there results the condition of complex mimosis inquieta?plus the original hysteria. From this we see that the incidence of those emotional paroxysms, termed ” hysterical fits,” is the supervention of ideo-motor action on to a previously excited and partly exhausted nervous organisation. ” Infectious hysteria,” again, is purely complex mimosis inquieta.

The circumscribed patches of pale and turgid skin so often seen in ” hysteria ” are probably due in the first instance to non-ideational interference with the vasa motor nerves ; when once, however, the condition is established, the patches can be produced in obedience to an idea in the same manner as pallor and blushing of the face. Yasa motor action due to ideation is not restricted to the face. The back, the arms, the bosom, and indeed the whole body may be under its influence. The relation of the face to the rest of the body in vasa motor action due to ideation is that which it bears to it in vasa motor action due to muscular exertion. In the latter case the face is nearly always redder than the rest of the cutaneous surface, but the general surface of the body is also more or less affected. I am now acquainted with a lady whose hands, naturally warm, are yet, when her mind is otherwise occupied than in dwelling on their peculiarities, only moderately moist. “Whenever, however, the idea of manual perspiration or dampness recurs, the hands begin to perspire profusely.

A fair test in these cases, and one I myself put in practice, is to suggest the idea, whatever it may be, to the sufferer, when he or she may be absorbed in some occupation and temporarily at least free from the phenomena. In this manner it is easy to verify in any particular case the assertion that certain results do follow an idea. Should such results not follow, the explanation may be tendered to the observer that the phenomena manifest themselves only when the idea is mentally evolved, and not consequent on direct external suggestion. The only satisfactory method of procedure in such cases is to watch carefully, in order to detect, if possible, whether the phenomena are manifested without direct objective influences, be they external or bodily, and acting in a physical manner without any necessary connection with ideo-motor action. The spinal complaints of ” hysteria” are central, and the paralysis also.* But every affection of the nerve centre governing an organ affects the trophic influence of the centre over that organ. In the first place, if the centre be stimulated there will be hyperplasia of the connective tissue or other new growth, as the case may be, and as the centre becomes exhausted its trophic influence over the part it supplies with nerves fails, and innutrition of that part is a necessary result. This exhaustion of the nerve centres may be, as I have explained, produced by peripheral irritation, but inhibition of these centres follows on ideation, and the result of inhibition is practically the same as if the centres were exhausted. Thus atrophy of any region may follow on complex mimosis inquieta. That which is at first merely ideational may become an objective reality.

The production of ” hysterical fits ” is a true example of complex mimosis inquieta. The patient cannot resist the suggestion. Table of Phenomena and Causation in Mimosis Inquieta. 1. Congenital or induced (by dissipation, &c.) atony of the nerve centres. 2. Direction of attention to phenomena, &c. 3. Results due to reflex action ; transference of the nerve force or vascular disturbance of sensory or motor centres, due to peripheral irritation. If Class 3 exist the result will be atony or exhaustion of the nervous centres (1)?simple mimosis inquieta. Class 2, acting on 3, will produce increased intensity of the phenomena. (Hysteria + S.M.I.) + direction of attention = ideo-motor action (C.M.I.) + physical hysteria or abdomino-central mimosis inquieta.

If there be encephalic exhaustion the Y.M. centres participate in such exhaustion; hence follow vascular disturbances in the nervous, including the sensory centres (class 3), producing increased intensity of the phenomena. It is, I believe, generally acknowledged by the genuine scientists who have investigated mesmerism that its phenomena are due to suggestion and to fulfilment by the person of a dominant idea. The suggestion may be from another person, and oral, or by signs, or may be communicated without aught else than the mere will of the operator. In this last manner animals may be mesmerised. There is here, of course, no ” action at a distance”; such a thing is repugnant to first principles, and the idea is suggested from the operator to the sitter by means of a communicating physical force, which has received various names. It is found that patients thrown for the first time into the mesmeric state with difficulty, pass into it with greater ease each succeeding occasion on which they are subjected to the operation.

By practice a person may be able in time to throw himself into the mesmeric condition. This is done (putting on one side the physical process of gazing at a disc) by calling up the idea of the mental state desired, and paying attention to nothing else but this idea. Hypnotism is too well known to need here further description or explanation.

Catalepsie jpassagere is merely mesmerism. The question may be asked whether mimosis inquieta may be brought about in a healthy nervous system. My answer, founded on observation, is this : a healthy nervous system placed under its normal conMIMOSIS IN QUI ETA. 215 dition of existence, subjected to no shocks or unusual mental disturbances, will exhibit none of the phenomena of mimosis. Blushing is not an unhealthy sign if it have an objective or subjective cause working on the person’s emotions. It is ideomotorial blushing, occurring without previous emotion, which is indicative of nervous weakness.

A healthy nervous system may be temporarily shocked or disturbed by being placed under strange circumstances, when the phenomena of simple mimosis inquieta are likely to occur. The development of this into complex mimosis inquieta, or its entire cessation, will depend on the future conditions under which the person will be situated, and on the imaginativeness or otherwise of his temperament. Simple and complex mimosis are atonic functional states of the whole nervous system. The patient never deceives himself; he always knows that the action only follows the thought, that when his mind is abstracted it does not take place, but he feels himself helpless to control it. There is no hyperesthesia of the cutaneous nerves nor imaginary pain. The disturbances are motor simply, and pass away in sleep, and when the patient’s thoughts are abstracted. The palsied shaking observed in persons even when abstracted is not an active, but a passive condition of the muscles, and that condition is a physical lack of tone in the tissue concerned.

If a man who by dissipation has brought his nervous system into a state of exhaustion, reform his mode of life, but take no medicine, there will ensue in a short time a moderation and diminution of the symptoms, and after some period he may recover. If such person do not reform his mode of life, but take those substances which are suitable as food for his nervous centres, there will also ensue a diminution of the symptoms, but an absolute cure will not be effected. If, however, he both reform his habits and take the medicine, he will in a short period be restored ‘to health.

Now, expenditure of nervous energy is correlated to the destruction of nervous tissue, a using up or excretion of known chemical substances. In structure the brain is cellular, and the destruction of these cells is necessary for the manifestation of its functional powers.

When dissipation is practised, no nerve food being taken, the blood is impoverished in those materials necessary for brain tissue, and the cells are undergoing rapid discharge and formation. When dissipation is abandoned, but no nerve food is taken, the cells are allowed to mature, and gradually the blood regains its normal supply of materials for nerve tissue. When dissipation is abandoned and nerve food is taken, the cells not only mature, but do so rapidly, because the blood is richly supplied with the materials required for nerve tissue.

From these considerations we derive a very practical conclusion. We can supply all the material necessary for nervous expenditure, and in this manner can doubtless ameliorate the condition of patients suffering from nervous exhaustion; but for the perfect discharge of nervous functions, maturation of the nervous tissue is necessary, and for such maturation time is requisite,?time in which there shall be no demand on the nervous energy; otherwise, by the administration of nervous food, we shall merely assist in the rapid development of new brain cells, in reality of an embryonic tissue, which, like other tissues, is incapable of the functional energy it would possess if matured. Nervous atony (simple mimosis inquieta) may be congenital, in which case the phenomena are observed from earliest infancy, and as the age of the child advances, are intensified in character, becoming especially well marked about the age of puberty. The condition of the child may be the inheritance of a preceding psychosis of like character, or result from some strong shock to the nervous system of its mother while in utero.

With regard to the treatment of mimosis inquieta in its various forms, the first indication is the cessation of the exhausting habits, if any ; the second, the cure of the abdominal, including uterine affections, if any; the third, the use of nerve foods; the fourth, dietetics and hygiene; the fifth, moral treatment.

The tendency of nature in all these cases is to restore herself to the normal,’ but the expenditure of nerve material in certain cases of hysteria is enormous, apart from any pernicious habits on the part of the patient, and the food does not contain in a readily assimilable form all the material required to supply this waste. Moreover, in cases of nervous exhaustion the digestion is often impaired ; hence, by supplying materials readily absorbed and incorporated into the nervous system, not only are the nervous centres benefited, but through the nerves the power of the digestive organs is restored. Electricity is of service in the hands of a competent person. Massage is highly approved by many authorities; it is a good way of stimulating nervous action and of promoting the circulation.

The treatment of congenital simple mimosis should be commenced from the child’s birth. If the mother herself be subject to mimosis, the child should be brought up by hand. So soon as it can be fed by the spoon, a preparation of the phosphates should be given daily. So soon as the salivary glauds are functionally active, oatmeal porridge made with milk should be given. Sea, or artificial salt water baths, exercise in proportion to its years, and pure air, are most powerful factors in forming the child’s constitution. But second to no measure in its importance is the preclusion from entrance into the child’s mind of the idea of dark occult influences, of supernatural or natui’al evil beings, seeking occasion to exert their malevolence. Tales of witches and wizards, of gnomes, ghosts, fairies, elfs, pigmies and pixies, and all the rest of the crew are directly suited to shock a sensitive child’s nervous system, and to undo the good mere physical measures are working. In like manner the myth of an angry Grod, with a big book for jotting down reminders of little sinners’ peccadilloes, and of a hell-fire especially prepared for the eternal roasting of such erratic young mortals, should never be spoken into the ear of the little child. He, as years advance, will, in all probability, it is true, treat the myth for .what it is?a grossly profane lying superstition ; but the mischief will have been done, the seeds of terror will have been sown, to work an almost irreparable mischief as his faculties develop. I am no atheist that I write thus, but it is by love, not fear, that the little one can be brought to adore his Maker in sincerity and truth. It is in the spirit of a St. John the divine and not of a Moses that they must be addressed ; the beauteous poem of infinite love should not be hidden beneath the coarse cover of anger and punishment. Neither should such physical measures of correction be adopted as may produce a serious shock to the child’s nervous system, as placing him in a dark cupboard or room. The child’s courage should be fostered, and his mind be rigidly guarded against the entrance into it of dark baseless fear.

The best possible system of education for nervous children is the Kindergarten ; they learn in schools of this class for much the same reason that we adults eat hearty dinners, because it is a pleasure to do so. The child has a natural appetite for knowledge?witness his curious questions?and we have natural appetites for our dinners. A diurnal meal of salt junk and boiled carrots would, however, in time, perhaps lose its pristine fascination, abate by our knowledge of its flavour our eager expectancy to reinvestigate its many virtues, and finally cause us to grow so heartily sick of it that we should look forward to its occurrence as a mere act to be performed for the support of our bodies, as a mere cramming down of unpalatable material. In like manner the little one in a rod and spelling-book school soon grows weary of his mental food, and that which was at first pleasurable because novel at length becomes a painful task. The spelling-book is not necessary to his existence as the salt junk might be to ours; and so, with regard to his mental labour, the rod occupies a position equivalent to that of mere apprehension of inanition in the physical world.

Psychic force.?Of the existence of this force I am myself convinced, but my premiss that it is inherent in the human system forms no basis for the physiological and psychological considerations with which the major part of this article is concerned, and consequently its rejection can affect itself merely, and the methods of treatment based on its supposed existence. *Pasteur has proved, and the scientific world has, for the’major part, subscribed to the doctrine, that physical life?that is, life as we know it? can only arise from organic matter; that life is never created ; that heat, motion, chemical combinations, and other forces and conditions, cannot produce a living being if care be taken to prevent access of living germs to the material which is under experiment. The inevitable conclusion resulting from the investigations of this distinguished scientist is that life is the result of the presence in organic matter of a force or principle equally potent, but not identical with any other known physical force. The existence of the common physical forces, nay, even that of the air, is inferred simply from the phenomena exhibited, and in the same manner have the-conclusions of the investigators been arrived at concerning the cause of the phenomena termed vital. Man’s body, which is material and organic, must, if such a force exist, contain it throughout its substance. The food of man is also for the greater part organic: the conclusion is, therefore, that the force is received into the human system with the food, and incorporated with it into the bodily mechanism. I have no space to do more than barely allude to the arguments on which the existence of a ” psychic ” force is based. They refer chiefly to the movement of material bodies without either contact with the operator or connecting material medium. The question then arises whether the ” vital” (or that which gives life to organic matter) and the ” psychic ” forces are identical. And a further question follows, whether psychic force is soul force. As known to us these three agents exhibit totally different phenomena.

Modern experimental psychology has proved the existence of an unnatural thinking power (the soul) within the man, and the proofs remain, however much materialists may try to ignore them. All the phenomena which can be attributed with certainty to this soul are those of cognition. The so called “psychic” force may be sent out from the body * It is a fact not geuerally known tliat this eminent investigator is a Spiritualist.

when the man is in a normal state of consciousness, in obedience to the will, and it manifests itself by its power of moving material forms.

The ” vital” force is that which gives life to the organic cell. It cannot preserve the existence of the ego, its sole function being to vivify organic particles. When cellular material has become unfit for the manifestation of vital phenomena, it is disintegrated and reconstructed by the force in question. If a soul exist, and modern psychology has shown that it does, it is evident that unless it be passed into the baby during or after the manufacture of its little body, it must be evolved from a force or forces organic in their nature.

Considering, then, the exhibited relative potentiality of these three forces, and the necessity of the soul’s evolution, we cannot but consider the organic or vital force as the basis from which is evolved the psychic, or, more correctly, the nerve force, and from this latter the soul arising by a similar process of evolution. Apart from the above argument, it is certainly most unreasonable to suppose that a subtle sentience would act in the manner of a physical force, lifting heavy weights. The term ” psychic force” is therefore a misnomer. The question now arises whether in states of nervous irritability there is not merely the elimination of force which must be the inevitable sequence of destruction of nerve tissue, but also a passing away of this force from the body surface, not consequent on cellular destruction, and leaving the nerve tissue weakened.

It is certain that in psychics a great passage of nerve force occurs, and that the elimination of such force results in conscious exhaustion. The phenomena of psychism are of all degrees, merging at the lowest point into the normal. The passage of this force is both voluntary and involuntary; that is, it is accelerated by the will, but when the latter is inactive, may still pass from the body, although from no definite purpose. It is probable, therefore, that a certain surface discharge of nerve force is even normal. In states of great bodily weakness the phenomena termed ” psychical” disappear, and with the restoration of nervous activity they are re-established. Moreover, they depend for their intensity on the functional discharge of the nervous centres as manifested in volition, which discharge is really cellular combustion. These conditions, therefore, impel us to the belief that in states of nervous irritability, the passage of nerve force from the body surface is much increased.

It must not be forgotten that many personsnaay be psychics unknown even to themselves, and be also suffering from nervous disorders.

Massage.?-This system of treatment consists in rubbing* kneading, stroking, &c., the body surface. Its effects are doubtless in great part purely mechanical; the circulation is assisted and the nerves are stimulated; but there is another view of the question. Massage is merely an old remedy, with variations, under a new name. It is the ” laying-on of hands,” ” mesmeric healing,” ” magnetic cure,” &c. &c. Doubtless many of those who approve of massage believe its effects to be produced without any passage of nervous force into the patient’s body from that of the operator.

Nevertheless, the treatment had its origin in the latter belief. For myself, I, from experience, most certainly hold that massage is beneficial, and that even the simple stroking, or the mere apposition of the operator’s hands with the patient’s body, is productive of benefit by the passage into the latter of psycbic or nerve force from the former.

It is a widely spread opinion amongst all classes, that for a child or youth to sleep with an old and enfeebled person is injurious to the former. This opinion has been borne out by my own observations. Moreover, if an unhealthy or exhausted person sleep with one healthy and vigorous, although they be of the same age, the former will gain strength and health at the expense of the latter. It may interest the reader to know that a belief in a nerve force is not so modern as might at first sight appear. Hargrave Jennings, in his book on u The Rosicrucians, their Rites and Mysteries,” says: ” There was among the sages a writer Artephius …. He is said to have invented a cabalistic magnet, which possessed the extraordinary property of secretly attracting the aura or mysterious spirit of human efflorescence and prosperous bodily growth out of young men; and these benign and healthful springs of life he gathered up and applied by his magic art to himself, by inspiration, transudation, or otherwise, so that he concentred on his own body, waning in age, the accumulated rejuvenescence of many young people, the individual owners of which new fresh life suffered, and were consumed in proportion to the extent in which lie preyed vitally upon them, and some of them were exhausted by this enchanter and died. This was because their fresh young vitalit}7 had been unconsciously drawn out of them in his baneful devouring society, which was unsuspected because it afforded a glamour delightful.”

The ” cabalistic magnet,” &c., is of course an absurd popular addition to what may have been a genuine fact. It is quite possible that Artephius may have observed phenomena leading him to the conclusion that the weak can gather strength from the vigorous, and that, acting on this suggestion, he may have invigorated himself at the expense of his younger friends. See also 1 Kings i. v. 1-4, which passage is noted by the author above mentioned.

Thus do many old beliefs, once empirical, and associated with superstition, become negatived as man advances from the thraldom of the latter; to be again accepted as his higher intellectual progress shows that the phenomena are clue to definite scientific causes, and that their negation resulted from the ignorance of the mediaevalism of progress, which preferred ignoring phenomena to ackowledging their existence and confessing an inability to offer any rational theory of causation. Emerging from the darkness of superstitious ignorance the knowledge of the nations in their onward progress is marked by three stages: Superstition, Scepticism, Rational Belief. Each of these is composite, even as knowledge is not of one but of many things, and so, while superstition may reign unchecked in one department, another may be under the glorious sun of rational belief. By the engrafting of the highest result of mental development on the barren tree of ignorance the nation or the individual may be carried from darkness to the fullest light of knowledge without traversing the mid-road of superstition and scepticism.

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